Last night was a welcome break from our run of cloudy weather, The clear sky enabled a look at another recent supernova: SN2024gy. The letter suffix translates to g*26 + y = 207, where g=7 and y=25. This supernova in the galaxy NGC 4216 was discovered on 4 January by Koichi Itagaki. There are thousands of supernovas discovered every year. This particular example is notable only because it is bright enough to be within the reach of modest amateur equipment.
The measured sky brightness was sqml = 19.64, not very dark by Creede standards but very typical for Santa Fe. This level of brightness makes it difficult to capture faint extended objects, such as the host galaxy in which this supernova resides. The galaxy NGC 4216 is a spiral galaxy in the Virgo Cluster, seen nearly edge-on from our perspective. Its distance is variously quoted as being between 40 Mly and 55 Mly.
 |
| The white circle is centered on the the host galaxy, the two lines point to the supernova. E-M5 + Rokinon 135mm f/2, ISO 800, 30 s. 2° FOV. |
It looks like the magnitude on this date (11 Feb) is between 13.0-13.5 based on comparison to other stars visible in the field of view.
Here is a finder chart for the surrounding field of view:
 |
| Credit: SkySafariAstronomy.com |
A clear morning sky enabled me to capture an image of our nearest star and its current array of sunpots on 12 February:
 |
| E-M5iii + Orion 80mmED f/7.5. ISO 800, 1/800 s. |
As usual, click on an image to get into gallery view and get access to the full-size versions.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Comments are moderated.